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The Necromancer
The Necromancer by Lawrence Flammenberg (Karl Friedrich Kahlert) Translated by Peter Teuthold (Peter Will) The Necromancer is a twisted novel with multiple story lines, all interweaving around a necromancer named Volkert. There are many main characters throughout the novel who come into contact with Volkert and experience haunting and horrific experiences with the paranormal and death. The novel is divided into two volumes and three parts, each dealing with another group of people and time period, yet somehow interrelated with the rest. Because the novel purports to be “founded on facts”, certain proper names, such as towns and men, are recognized by only the first initial (e.g. the town of F--, Baron de R--); such precautions, are assumed to protect the victims and families. The story opens with two long lost friends who have reunited after many years apart. Each man tells the other of strange occurrences that have happened since they last saw one another. Both men seem slightly apprehensive to disclose to the other the paranormal events that they witnessed; yet both find camaraderie in the others similar stories. Both men have seen ghosts and witnessed mysterious deaths that seem to correspond to the necromancers’ sorcery, which they had somehow been a part of. In the end of the story telling one of the men gives to the other a collection of letters that contain the remainder of his adventures. Before the friend can read the stories, both men die. The remainder of the novel, beginning in Part II, is the collection of letters given from the one man to his friend. The contents of those letters contain many more tales of mysterious phantoms and death, as witnessed by people associated with the necromancer Volkert. One such instance involves a family whose father is on his death bed. As he lay dying his final words to his wife are to not allow his only daughter to wed the man whom she is deeply in love with; with that he passes on giving no reason for his command. When the widow conveys the message to her daughter, she becomes terribly distraught and seeks to find an understanding as to why her father would so strictly and strangely issue such a command. The widow, daughter and neighbor, who suggested visiting the necromancer, meet in a secret, dark and smoky castle room. Here the necromancer calls, through an elaborate ceremony, for the dead husband to return and answer the questions his widow and daughter have. Soon enough before their very eyes the apparition of their dead loved one appears hovering above the ground. The widow and daughter are far too struck by fear to utter even a single word, so the neighbor asks the specter if his daughter can marry the man whom she loves. The ghost replies with a stern ‘No!’ So the neighbor asks why, to which it replies, ‘He is your brother!’ Driven mad by the answer and perhaps the sorcery of the necromancer, the widow kills the daughter she loves. Many more tales of horror fill the pages of this German novel, which give the reader plenty of page turning mystery. Information on Authorship: The novel is in fact a translation of Der Geisterbanner (The Spectral Banner), published by Johann Baptist Wallishauser in 1792, and attributed to Lawrence Flammenberg. Flammenberg was in fact a pseudonym for Karl Friedrich Kahlert (1765-1813). Kahlert was the author of several more works, none of which have ever been translated into English and seem to have been lost to history. Interestingly, however, the English version of Der Geisterbanner ''adds a long episode not found in Kalhert’s original, but in fact adapted from a story by Friedrich Schiller (''Die Raüber, the Robbers). However, perhaps even more interesting is the fact that Kahlert appreciated the Engligh translator’s (Peter Will) addition so much that in 1799, he republished Der Geisterbanner in an extended edition, acknowledging the translator and leaving his insertion. (Kahlert ix) Contemporary Reviews: The Monthly Review, ''April 1795, p. 465. In the mind of man there is a predisposition to credulity which too often renders the very means adopted as a remedy a proximate cause of new disease. The Platonic idea of influencing dæmons or disembodied spirits by human rites and adjurations of learning secret phaenomena from their revelation and of accomplishing by their intervention important purposes of this world had scarcely been mentioned much less credited since the time of the old Alchemists and Rosicrusians, until some modern novelists chose once more to familiarize the superstition partly in order to expose it and partly in order to extract from it new sources of the terrible. The opinion itself self now seems again creeping into repute it is mentioned even by philosophers without a sneer and it is becoming the corner stone of a spreading sect of visionaries whose favoured or impudent proselytes are said to behold by day and in the very streets of this metropolis the wandering fouls of holy men of other times. It requires perhaps some leaning towards these and the like notions or at least a sufficient respect for them not to laugh at, but to sympathize with the curiosity and apprehensions of those imbued with them in order to be pleased with this novel. In Germany, no doubt, such doctrines have made a wider impression and progress than in our country since raising ghosts is an operation of frequent recurrence in The Necromancer; although the scene of adventure be hid in a frequented part of the country in our own half century and among the informed classes of the people. The prevailing spirit of the fable would best be manifested by extracts but for these we cannot spare room. The extraordinary events which occupy the first volume are in the second not very dexterously unravelled They chiefly result from a confederacy of banditti the leaders of which are seized tried and executed for their crimes and die becomingly penitent leaving behind them the necessary confessions. Of the style of this novel we have only to observe that it is not improperly adapted to a work which, we doubt not, will eagerly be perused by those who are ever on the watch for something new and strange. ''British Critic, vol. 4 (1794): 194 A stranger farrago of Ghosts and Robbers was never put together. This work calls itself a translation from the German: out of respect to such of our countrymen as are authors, we heartily wish it may be a translation. We should be sorry to see an English original so full of absurdities. Errors of ignorance or of the press occur perpetually, such as affect for effect, adjectives used for adverbs &c. &c. Critical Review ser. 2. vol. II (1794): 469 We are assured that the strange events related in these volumes, are founded in facts, the authenticity of which can be warranted by the translator, who has lived many years not far from the principal place of action. Exclusive if the entertainment arising from this narrative, it has in view an additional purpose, of greater importance to the public. It exposes the arts which have been practiced in a particular part of Germany, for carrying on a series of nocturnal depredations in the neighborhood, and infusing into the credulous multitude a firm belief in the existence of sorcery. What makes this Gothic: v Framed/Inset Narratives v Epistolary Form v Castles & Secret Passageways v Apparitions v Death/Murder v Taboos v Horror/Male Gothic Observations: Despite the reviews that describe this novel as a poor translation with an incomprehensible structure, I heartily enjoyed The Necromancer. I can certainly understand why one would have trouble following the story lines, however the writing style is simple enough to pick up where the author is taking you. More importantly to me, are the scenes of horror that put this book in the list of the Seven Horrid Novels listed by Catherine to Isabella in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. I truly found myself brought into the story as I pictured the atmosphere of the many disturbing sequences. Though timid, by today’s horror standards, it is clear where the classic horror motifs came from. The Gothic has influenced everything from Sherlock Holmes to Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and The Necromancer holds a unique position in this pedigree. Having been originally published in Hohenzollern (Modern-day Southern Germany) in 1792, this novel predates the Gothic masters, such as: The Italian ''and ''The Monk. By the time it was translated into English in 1794, though understandably questioned, it became one of the few legitimate German translations to the gothic-starved English-speaking world. For these reasons as well as others, The Necromancer should stand as one of the great gothic novels. Works Cited: Kahlert, Karl Friedrich, and Peter Teuthold. ''The Necromancer, Or, The '' Tale of the Black Forest: Founded on Facts. Chicago: Valancourt, 2007. Print.